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Kelley School of Business

Kelley course on the business culture of Greece honored by Greek Ministry of Tourism

Posted on by George Vlahakis

 

ATHENS – Sadly, study abroad programs for Indiana University students were cancelled this summer due to the current pandemic and the U.S. Department of State’s worldwide travel advisory. This impacted numerous international experiences for students in the IU Kelley School of Business, including those who normally enroll in Tatiana Kolovou’s “Business Culture of Greece” course.

Although the Athens native couldn’t return with her students during spring break to the land of her birth, Kolovou was honored on June 3 with one of the annual Greek Tourism Awards sponsored by the Greek Ministry of Tourism. She received a Silver Award in the educational program category.

This is the seventh year for these awards, which reward innovative ways to promote understanding and spur interest in traveling to Greece.

In recognizing Kolovou, pictured above with her students in 2014, the awards committee said the Kelley course “contributes significantly to the local economy and positively shapes the views of the new generation for Greece.”

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As international academic conferences are cancelled because of COVID-19, Kelley faculty step forward to host them virtually

Posted on by George Vlahakis

 

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Much has been reported about efforts at Indiana University and the Kelley School of Business to provide students with a high-quality educational experience online, but two major conferences hosted virtually by the school also demonstrate its ability to use the same technology to advance research knowledge.

In the aftermath of the novel coronavirus pandemic and travel restrictions, scholars worldwide have been prevented from traveling to academic conferences to present their work and discuss topics of mutual interest.

Many academic, industry and tech conferences have been cancelled, rescheduled or moved online. They included the Conference on Financial Economics and Accounting – which Kelley will host in 2021 — major conferences presented by the American Marketing Association and the Financial Intermediation Research Society

In response, Kelley has been a leader in pivoting to present conferences online, drawing upon its considerable expertise in online education.

The University of North Carolina originally had planned to host the Society for Financial Studies’ 2020 North American Cavalcade. The annual event was nearly cancelled until finance faculty at Kelley offered to host it online. Their efforts built on the success of another event moved online, the annual Albert Haring Symposium on April 17-18, organized by Kelley’s Department of Marketing. (more…)

Three Kelley graduates recognized for their service on the school’s alumni association board

Posted on by George Vlahakis

 

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Three Indiana University Kelley School of Business alumni who are remarkable leaders in their industries have made immense contributions to the school and its leadership network — Steve Coverick, Shannon Watkins and Eric Derheimer. Their terms on the board of the Kelley School of Business Alumni Association end June 30.

They are being honored June 5, during their last board meeting, which was held virtually due to the pandemic.

Coverick, B.S. ‘09, a director with Alvarez & Marsal’s North American turnaround and restructuring practice in Dallas, served as president of the Kelley School of Business Alumni Association in 2018-19. Watkins, (pictured above) MBA ’02, Aflac’s senior vice president, brand and creative services, has been on the board since 2017. Derheimer, B.S. ‘04, managing director at CID Capital, was an inaugural member of the Kelley Leadership and Development Council in 2014 and has served as its Chair since July 2015.

“Steve, Eric, and Shannon represent some of our most invested and involved alums. Their contributions to the Kelley School of Business Alumni Association range from updating our mission and guiding principles to providing thought leadership to our board and councils,” said Derek Hicks, MBA ’02, current president of the Kelley School of Business Alumni Association and vice president, corporate development at Pfizer Inc.

Idalene “Idie” Kesner, dean of the Kelley School and the Frank P. Popoff Chair of Strategic Management, praised contributions made by everyone serving on the KSBAA board and thanked Derheimer, Coverick and Watkins for their efforts benefiting fellow alumni as well as current students and faculty.

“The Kelley School of Business simply wouldn’t be as good as it is without our alums, and these three alumni have been valuable leaders as Kelley has increased in size and influence over the last few years,” Kesner said. “We will definitely miss their work with the KSBAA, but I know they will continue to be valuable ambassadors for Kelley.” (more…)

Dean’s statement on Kelley’s commitment to diversity, equity and inclusivity

Posted on by George Vlahakis

To the Kelley Community,

Last week in our country, we experienced one of the most tragic weeks imaginable in our lifetimes.  This description is not simply a reference to the more than 100,000 lives lost to COVID-19.  This statement is a reflection of the horror we all witnessed in the killing of George Floyd.  Mr. Floyd’s tragic death has led to an understandable sense of fear, outrage, sadness and discontent in addition to feelings of powerlessness.  And it is an all-too-familiar example of the injustices against the African American community in this nation – an injustice that is grossly disproportionate in its impact on this community.  It is an injustice so great that we are left wondering if, when and how we can heal as a country.

This year, I had the privilege of spending time visiting civil rights museums in Montgomery, Alabama.  If you have never been to the Legacy Museum and the National Memorial for Peace and Justice, I urge you to go.  This is far from my first visit to a memorial aimed at educating us on the important issues of social injustice. But this memorial, like no other place I have visited, focuses the mind on racial terrorism.  As you walk silently through the solemn spaces that capture the horror of slavery and lynchings, you are reminded of a dark, dark history in the chapter of the American experience.  Sadly, the events of this past week – and really more than that, the events of the past few years – remind us all that the word “history” is not the proper word.  History implies a sense of the past, and our country is clearly not past this dark chapter. We continue to live elements of it over and over again.

I am not a politician. I don’t have the power to change laws and leaders other than through my vote – my powerful, constitutionally granted vote.  But, I am a parent and an educator. As a mother, I cannot imagine, nor will I ever fully appreciate, the unbearable sadness and grief other parents are having to endure, especially if a loved one has been lost due to the injustice we are witnessing. Nor can I imagine the impossibility of having to make sense of this to a young child or even a young adult.

As an educator, I have always believed in the power of education as a tool to enlighten and uplift. And, like you, I have a voice.  It is my hope that in this collective moment of grief, we use our voices to speak up and educate those around us about injustices that can no longer be tolerated in our society. As Martin Luther King Jr. stated, “True peace is not the absence of tension:  it is the presence of justice.”

Please find ways to support each other during this time. If you are a student, check in on your classmates. Check in on your friends and your neighbors too. Be a beacon for change that is accomplished peacefully but powerfully in its impact. Whether you influence one or hundreds, each of us, in ways we are uniquely and individually qualified, can use our skills and knowledge to make a difference. I believe in our school’s commitment to diversity, equity and inclusivity, and I pray you do, too. I ask that all of us – students, faculty, staff, and alumni – come back together this fall and bring our ideas for how we can strengthen diversity, equity, and inclusivity of our Kelley community.

Please stay safe.

Idalene “Idie” Kesner

Dean, Kelley School of Business and Frank P. Popoff Chair of Strategic Management

Despite COVID-19, IU student chapter finishes third in American Marketing Association’s national case competition

Posted on by George Vlahakis

 

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — Despite not being able to make their presentation in person, a team of Kelley School of Business students in Indiana University’s student chapter of the American Marketing Association came in third in the professional organization’s national case competition.

In February, students and their advisors — Greg Kitzmiller, I-Core case coordinator and Uline Distinguished Lecturer in Marketing and Jennifer Riley Simone, a lecturer in marketing — learned that their team was one of 11 teams in the National AMA Collegiate Case Competition.

It was the first time that the IU AMA student chapter had qualified for the national finals since being established in 2010. More than 400 AMA student chapters worldwide participate in the competition annually.

The AMA Collegiate Case Competition is a year-long event that brings together top marketing students to work on a business challenge, which this year was submitted by Cotton Inc. Each AMA chapter team developed a 40-page recommendation to combat a lack of awareness among 15- to 18-year-old Americans regarding the fiber-content of their clothing. Cotton Inc. invested $1.5 million into the winning strategy.

Two days before students were scheduled to leave for New Orleans and the AMA International Collegiate Conference in mid-March, they learned their travel plans were cancelled due to COVID-19. Students initially were heartbroken upon learning they wouldn’t be able to attend the conference. (more…)

IU Research Office, Kelley School provides financial support for social ventures coming out of Idea Sprint Weekend Against COVID-19

Posted on by George Vlahakis

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – In mid-March, faculty at Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business organized a three-day “virtual idea blitz” to address impacts of COVID-19 across the arenas of health, education and small business, in communities and through changed purchasing behaviors.

Led by Regan Stevenson, assistant professor of management and entrepreneurship and the John and Donna Shoemaker Faculty Fellow in Entrepreneurship, and Matthew Josefy, assistant professor of strategy and entrepreneurship, the initiative resulted in 21 ideas with corresponding pitches were developed in five thematic areas: health needs, education, small businesses, community, and purchasing.

Josefy and Stevenson documented their reflections in an article published in Business Horizons, an academic journal published at Kelley.

Impressed with the effort, the IU Office of the Vice President for Research funded a proposal to provide multiple mini-grants of up to $2,500 to accelerate entrepreneurial responses coming out of the “Idea Sprint Weekend Against COVID-19″ initiative. It complements other support from within the Kelley School.

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Kelley partnering with Indy Chamber to offer free Rapid Recovery Series webinars to help businesses impacted by COVID-19

Posted on by George Vlahakis

 

INDIANAPOLIS – Indy Chamber and Kelley Executive Education at the Indiana University Kelley School of Business are partnering to offer a webinar series that will give business owners best practices and strategies for reopening and recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Free and open to the public, the Rapid Recovery Series will cover topics ranging from setting a recovery strategy and rebuilding business financials to repairing supply chains and attracting new customers. Each hour-long webinar will be led by a Kelley School of Business faculty member, with 45 minutes of presentation and 15 minutes of Q&A.

Charlotte Westerhaus-Renfrow, clinical assistant professor of business law and management, will lead the first session from 4 to 5 p.m. on May 26. Recordings of each session will be made available at Indy Chamber’s Rapid Response Hub.

Held each Tuesday and Thursday through June 18, the eight-part series will be taught by Kelley faculty at Indianapolis and Bloomington.

“The Indy Chamber/Kelley School of Business Recovery Series is a well-timed and perfectly targeted series of webinars for owners and leaders of small and mid-sized businesses,” said Richard J. Magjuka, faculty chair of Kelley School of Business Executive Education and the Fred G. Steingraber Chair in Distributed Education. (more…)

Kelley offers no-cost assistance to help small Hoosier businesses shift their operations online

Posted on by George Vlahakis

 

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — To help small companies in Indiana hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic, the Indiana University Kelley School of Business is offering no-cost assistance to businesses needing to shift operations online, while also providing paid internship opportunities for its students.

Kelley is partnering with Indiana Small Business Development Centers and also will work with economic development centers, chambers of commerce and business hubs such as the Dimension Mill in Bloomington. The program is called the Kelley HOPE Digital Project.

“COVID-19 is having a tremendous impact on the state’s economy,” said Bipin Prabhakar, (left) chair of Information Systems Graduate Programs at the Kelley School and a Fettig/Whirlpool Fellow. “Particularly hard hit are small businesses that have traditionally operated in person, not online. For some, going online will be a lifeline to survive.”

“Businesses may not have the time, knowledge or resources to implement an online model quickly,” added Alan Dennis, the Kelley School John T. Chambers Chair of Internet Systems. “Even after stay-at-home orders have been lifted, many consumers will still prefer to go online. We want to help these companies by offering a no-cost service to alleviate the operational barriers created by the COVID-19 pandemic.”

The goal of the program is to help small businesses establish or increase their online presence and bolster their digital capabilities. Each project will be done by students under the guidance of a faculty member or an alumnus who serves as a professional mentor. The focus will be to quickly solve a technology problem or to provide companies with new digital capability.

Projects could include creating or modifying websites or digital storefronts, making it possible for staff or customers to work with the company remotely or improving their information security. All projects will be completed within two weeks, so as many organizations can be helped as possible. All work will be done virtually through an accountable, responsible and customer-serving framework.

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Scarcity reduces consumers’ concerns about prices, research shows

Posted on by George Vlahakis

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — During the current pandemic, panicked overbuying of products such as toilet paper, cleaning products and similar items often has led to limited options for consumers and empty store shelves. What’s often left are generic or lower-priced branded products.

Ashok Lalwani

According to new research from the Indiana University Kelley School of Business, it may not be because consumers during this crisis are viewing higher-priced products as having better quality. A paper published in the Journal of Consumer Research finds that scarcity actually decreases consumers’ tendency to use price to judge a product’s quality.

“Scarcity is aversive and triggers the desire to compensate for the shortage, and to seek abundance,” said paper co-author Ashok Lalwani, associate professor of marketing at Kelley. “People who face scarcity are less likely to view less vs. more expensive options as belonging to different categories, and thus are open to differences at either or both ends of the price continuum.”

This is the first paper to directly show the impact of scarcity on price-quality judgments. The findings are applicable amid times of economic crisis, natural disasters and social disturbances.

“We suggest that people may not only differ in terms of how they categorize purchases, but also in terms of the extent to which they categorize, and scarcity reduces the tendency,” Lalwani said.

While consumers frequently judge the quality of a product based on its price, they change their thinking during times of scarcity and are less likely to categorize objects and less likely to use the price of a product to infer its quality, Lalwani and his co-authors found.

The business implications for managers at high-end stores or those who want to increase sales of high-priced items are numerous. Lalwani suggested that one way such managers can activate the belief that higher prices indicate higher quality is by varying context or environmental factors. This could include encouraging consumers — such as through contests or sweepstakes — to categorize assorted items by price to facilitate the use of price-tiers as a basis for judging a product’s quality.

“The same objective could also be attained by reducing consumers’ desire for abundance,” Lalwani said. “For example, inside the store, managers could have portraits, displays or ads highlighting the harmful effects of gluttony or hoarding behavior. Doing so may increase customers’ price-quality inferences and shift them from purchasing lower-priced to higher-priced goods.

“Our findings also suggest that when stronger price-quality inferences are desired, retailers are advised to avoid utilizing scarcity messages, such as ‘sale ends this week’ or ‘while supplies last,’ especially for product categories in which the proportion of high-priced items is high, as priming scarcity among consumers may decrease their price-quality inferences.”

Other authors of the paper, “The Impact of Resource Scarcity on Price-Quality Judgments,” were Hanyong Park, assistant professor of marketing at the Eli Brand College of Business at Michigan State, and David Silvera, retired associate professor of marketing at the University of Texas at San Antonio.

Students ‘zoom’ to promote good mental health during annual Kelley Impact Competition

Posted on by George Vlahakis

 

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Stay-at-home orders and other precautions against the coronavirus couldn’t stop organizers of the  Kelley Impact Competition from moving forward to help the nation’s largest grassroots mental health organization.

This is the 10th anniversary of the Kelley Institute for Social Impact, which organized the case competition for socially-minded undergraduate students. It’s also the second year for the event, which last year aided Habitat for Humanity of Monroe County.

The top three teams receive monetary prizes, but more importantly, the winning team also receives $10,000 in seed money to support their idea and hopefully create lasting change for the client, which this year was the greater Bloomington chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness.

Teams were asked to identify strategies that will increase the impact that the local NAMI chapter will have on the community and come up with methods to expand the reach of its message and grow its base of supporters and volunteers.

Last fall, Kelley 2011 alumnus Lance Breitstein, whose gift made the competition possible, asked the focus to be on mental health and wellness.

As part of its “Decade of Difference” celebration, the competition – which is open to all undergraduates at IU Bloomington — originally was scheduled to cap off a week of activities. As it became apparent in March that the coronavirus was going to affect campus activities, organizers moved it to April 24 and online.

Ten of the 12 original teams – each consisting of four students – remained committed. During the competition, they used Zoom to log in from all over the world — from India and China – as well as from all across the country – from Florida, California, Ohio, Illinois, Texas, New York – and, of course, Indiana. Also tuning in were 13 judges who included alumni and community partners. (more…)

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